Computers are about to enter an age where they can perceive, act and even think for themselves, using a network similar to the human brain. The likes of Google and Facebook are already using the principles of neuroscience to develop artificial brains that they hope will be able to solve their...
JUDY WOODRUFF: Hari Sreenivasan looks at the promise and perils of Silicon's Valley push into a realm once dominated by government contractors. HARI SREENIVASAN: The race for the next big thing is already under way in the private sector.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The latest gadgets and electronics are perennially best-selling holiday gifts. Our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien, had a more ambitious wish list, but he didn't yet get what he wanted for Christmas.
Subsymbolic approaches were pioneered in the late 1950s and 1960s, but lay fallow for years because they initially seemed to generate worse results than symbolic approaches. ... For certain classes of problems, modern subsymbolic approaches have proved far more generalizable and ubiquitous than...
Nearly a decade after its retirement, the advice-spewing "Clippy" remains one of technology's most hated characters. As part of Microsoft's Office Assistant help system, the paperclip-faced avatar proposed help based on Bayesian probability algorithms: start a word-processing...
Google is building its very own artificial brain using tens of thousands of computers, hoping to improve stuff like voice and image search. And Facebook has followed suit, aiming to solve its big data problems with help from the principles of neuroscience.
The new computing approach is based on the biological nervous system, specifically on how neurons react to stimuli and connect with other neurons to interpret...
The company's expansion into robotics was developed in tandem with the US military. Where will its power play stop? [...] You may not have noticed it, but over the past year Google has bought eight robotics companies. Its most recent acquisition is an outfit called Boston Dynamics, which...
Two researchers conducted an experiment in which a person was photographed, with another person standing near the photographer. Those not directly photographed show up as reflections in the subject's eyes.
Anyone who has waited endlessly at a red light at an empty four-way intersection knows traffic signals are not the most efficient way to keep traffic flowing. Computer scientists have figured out a way to utilize the space in intersections far more efficiently.
As chief scientist of the Internet portal Yahoo, Dr. Udi Manber had a profound problem: how to differentiate human intelligence from that of a machine. His concern was more than academic.
Israel has a bustling startup ecosystem; here are some incredible female founders who have contributed to it. Israel's startup ecosystem is maturing with more entrepreneurs taking on global markets and innovating at a rapid pace.
Last week, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that it had once again upgraded the software on the Mars Curiosity Rover. "Version 11 brings expanded capability for using the Curiosity's robotic arm while the vehicle is on slopes," the JPL's Jim Erickson said as...
When Kenneth Wayne Jennings, noted for holding the record for the longest winning streak of 74 games on the U.S. syndicated game show, bowed to IBM's Watson as the new "Jeopardy! " champ in 2011, he quoted an episode of "The Simpsons" and wrote "I for one welcome...
The alarms wail. The nuclear reactor is breached and belching out toxic waste. A mere human would have no chance of survival. But the mechanised rescue team that clanks into action soon has the situation under control.
This isn't fantasy - if the Pentagon has its way robot squads...
Amazon is now running live robots inside its distribution centers, drones that rapidly shuttle merchandise across these massive warehouses so that the world's largest retailer can ship you all those holiday gifts without delay. These orange 'bots know exactly where they're going,...
People who use computers regularly are constantly mapping the movements of their hand and computer mouse to the cursor on the screen. Now, researchers have shown that all that pointing and clicking (the average computer user performs an impressive 7,400 mouse clicks per week) changes the way the...
The robot effortlessly picks up one castor after another from the pile in the box and puts them into the channel. No matter how the wheels are lying, the robot manages to get an exact grip.
It used to be when you visited a petting zoo, the coolest thing you could touch was a goat. And while that was fine when you were five, it turns out that goats are actually pretty creepy and not that fun to pet. Thank god then, that there’s a new type of petting zoo that does away with living...
In a study of national data on colon surgery, researchers found that while patients who undergo either minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery or the high-tech robotic approach have similar outcomes, robotic surgery is significantly more expensive.
Even when our debates seem petty, you can’t say national politics doesn’t deal with weighty matters, from jobs to inequality to affordable health care and more. But lately I’ve become obsessed with an issue so daunting it makes even the biggest “normal” questions of public life seem tiny. I’m...
Do you have a forgettable face? Many of us go to great lengths to make our faces more memorable, using makeup and hairstyles to give ourselves a more distinctive look.Now your face could be instantly transformed into a more memorable one without the need for an expensive makeover, thanks to an...
A faulty pump means the space station might have to scrap a scheduled resupply to perform an emergency spacewalk. NASA hopes a temporary fix will allow the resupply to go ahead.
It's that time of the year again. You know, that time of year when technologists, pundits and bloggers get into the festive spirit and share technology predictions for the coming year.
Computer scientists have shown that an important class of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms could be implemented using chemical reactions. In the long term, they say, such theoretical developments could open the door for "smart drugs" that can automatically detect, diagnose, and treat a...
Are you a hipster, surfer or biker? What is your urban tribe? Your computer may soon be able to tell. Computer scientists are developing an algorithm that uses group pictures to determine to which of these groups, or urban tribes, you belong. So far, the algorithm is 48 percent accurate on average...
Imagine playing a video game like Call of Duty or Battlefield and having the ability to lead your virtual army unit while moving freely throughout your house. Gaming could become this realistic, thanks to new technology that allows for highly accurate, 3-D motion tracking. The new system, dubbed "...
Industrial processes have been mechanized, electrified and digitized. In the next step they become intelligent. However, the lines between virtual and real worlds become only slowly blurred. Researchers have now developed a miniature factory.
Increasingly small robots can carry out their functions even inside the human body. No, this isn’t a sci-fi dream. The technology is almost ready. However there is still one condition they must meet to be effective: these devices need to have the same “softness” and flexibility as biological...
Children learning to speak depend on functional hearing. So-called cochlear implants allow deaf people to hear again by stimulating the auditory nerve directly. Researchers are working to overcome current limits of the technology. They are investigating the implementation of signals in the auditory...
For a few years, optogenetics has been seen as a very promising therapy for progressive blindness, for example when it is a result of retinal degeneration. In order to further develop this therapeutic approach, researchers have developed a computer model that simulates optogenetic vision.
A computer program called the Never Ending Image Learner (NEIL) is running 24 hours a day searching the Internet for images, doing its best to understand them on its own and, as it builds a growing visual database, gathering common sense on a massive scale.
Researchers have developed new software that will allow users to put more and larger images on Wikipedia. Every day millions of users upload thousands of images to Wikipedia. Until now, the processing system needed a lot of resources and this limited the size of the images allowed.
There may be warning signs to help surgeons avoid damaging part of the urinary system during robot-assisted surgical removal of prostate cancer, ultimately preventing the expense of additional surgery, according to researchers. Although rare, they found instances when the ureter -- tubes that carry...
Recent advances in robotics technology make it possible to create prosthetics that can duplicate the natural movement of human legs. This capability promises to dramatically improve the mobility of lower-limb amputees, allowing them to negotiate stairs and slopes and uneven ground, significantly...
Computer scientists have developed a new password system that incorporates inkblots to provide an extra measure of protection when, as so often occurs, lists of passwords get stolen from websites. This new type of password, dubbed a GOTCHA (Generating panOptic Turing Tests to Tell Computers and...
Mine clearing, monitoring of vital signs and robot vision are among the many potential applications for Novelda’s innovative radar technology. The company’s tiny, unique processor chips are at the core of it all.
Software that can recognize patterns in data is commonly used by scientists and economics. Now, researchers in the US have applied similar algorithms to help them more accurately diagnose breast cancer.
Engineers have taught a robot to work in a mock-supermarket checkout line, modifying a Baxter robot from Rethink Robotics in Boston to "coactively learn" from humans and make adjustments while an action is in progress.
Scientists have demonstrated how underwater robots can be used to understand and influence the complex swimming behaviors of schooling fish. Robotic fish have an impact on collective animal behavior.
Scientists were able to laser scan a 40 meter-long skeleton of the vast Cretaceous Agentinosaurus dinosaur. Then using an advanced computer modeling technique involving the equivalent of 30,000 desktop computers they recreated its walking and running movements and tested its locomotion ability...
